Sharp focus stood us in good stead says Iran’s’ Razzaghpour

AFC – MANAMA, Abolfazl Razzaghpour and his Islamic Republic of Iran teammates may be youngsters wet behind the ears but they have shown maturity and mental skills well beyond their years that would elude even seasoned professionals during trying game time.

Razzaghpour’s (pictured, No23) first-half free kick earned Iran a 1-0 win over Yemen on Thursday evening as Amir Peiravnai’s side booked their place in the knockout phase of the AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016.

However, after two draws against Japan and Qatar, Iran found themselves in an emotionally testing situation during the Yemen game, where they had to wait and see their group’s other match’s result to have any chance of progressing, which would have been perfect ingredients for stress and pressure on the pitch.

But stress and pressure were something the Iranian youths handled very well, and Razzaghpour, the scorer of virtually all of Iran’s goals in the campaign so far, attributed their success to the power of concentration and focus on the game at hand.

“It was a very important match (against Yemen) for us,” he told the-AFC.com. “Because we needed to win to advance to the next stage, the coach and all players promised each other to win the match tonight.

“Also God helped our team…and Japan won against Qatar (3-0). We had a lot of chances at scoring goal, but lost the opportunity and consequently faced stress at the last minute of the match because a 1-0 win was not safe for us.

“Thankfully, one of the best things in our team is that we don’t get overly stressed, and we just concentrate on the match we are facing. This is what my coach wants as well.

“If we thought about the other match between Japan and Qatar, we might have lost the match tonight. We just concentrated on our match against Yemen. We knew the result of Japan against Qatar only after our final whistle.”

Iran now have to nail one more match, against Group D winners Uzbekistan, to qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup as a top-four team and Razzahgpour is already shifting his focus on the next game.

“Our physical condition is very good thanks to our trainers and physical coach. The coaches trained us very well and we are ready for the upcoming match without any problems. Thus we don’t worry about our recovery, and we are looking forward to the upcoming match.”

Photo: Lagardère Sports